The penetrating question asked thirty-five years ago and came back to haunt Kerry in the election is that you don’t ask a military man to die for his country for a mistake. “Country right or wrong” was invented for just such occasions. To be sure Vietnam was a war of vainglory, but it was not in vain despite the manner in which it was terminated. The US had heroically fought for ten years in behalf of another people who, we believed, was worthy of assistance in forging a democracy under threat of communism. That the political realm of the times misread the “domino theory” instead of comprehending the conflict based on that country’s history of hatred for imperialism per se and resenting the artificial division of north and south has nothing whatsoever to do with the brave sacrifices of the US military in obeying the policies of its own government.
No one would question the firefighters in the crumbling twin towers as having died in vain, though surely it was a mistake — to be sure a heroic one — to rush into the inferno. To these proud individuals it was simply what they were trained to do, just as the military is trained to face the dangers of the front. To be sure, the Civil War was a political blunder causing an enormous bloodbath, but the controversy over the Confederate flag has legitimacy only on the political level, not at the grave site of a southern soldier who fought for it — right or wrong. So, too, in Iraq, clearly “the wrong war at the wrong time,” nevertheless does not negate the magnificence of our armed services in carrying out their orders of combat. However horrible the thought that 1400 brave men and women would be alive today had Florida not screwed up, in no way diminishes the ultimate sacrifice of those fighting for and believing in the integrity of their country. As one amputee in an interview inferred we have to believe in a winning war otherwise he would have lost a leg in vain. I would take it further that even if in the end we lose, he will not have lost his leg in vain: he had proudly accepted the call of duty to his country.
On the other hand, the vainglorious politicians who beat the war drums of futility, should be impeached in order to preëmpt further irascible decisions of war.
Copyright © 2005 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: January 29, 2005.
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